All day on screens? That's like a full-time job just looking at pixels. No wonder your brain gets weird.

Tell me about it. A link in a chat just gets a quick glance, but holding a print made you stop and actually look at the details together. That whole experience of sharing something real is what's gone.

Reading this makes my old offshore gig seem like a bad joke. We got sold on the big checks but forgot to mention the 12-hour shifts in freezing rain. My savings took a hit similar to your pension, just with more regrets.

Actually that golden age might be a bit of a myth. A few cool spots did the free refill thing to draw crowds, but it was never the norm for most cafes. The math just doesn't work for a small business when one person takes up a table for six hours on a three dollar coffee. It's less about being unwelcoming and more about, you know, staying open. Rent and wages are crazy now, so they have to focus on turnover.